Six Master's in Bioscience Enterprise (MBE) students were amongst the winners in the recent CUE 1K business plan competition. For the £1k competition, each team had to write a 1500 word executive summary to show that their idea has wings.

Mihaela Voicescu, Edward Tan and Chikai Lai (all MBE students) won in the Technology and Life Sciences Category with Tricel.

Despite significant scientific advancement, cancer is still a leading cause of death and economic burden. Studies show that the failure rate of cancer medicines during studies in humans is more than 90%. Specifically, the challenge lies in the fact that animal study results do not always translate into comparable results for human studies. This is the problem Tricel is trying to solve by creating a platform technology based on cancer stem cells that can add value to preclinical cancer research. This technology can be exploited by various entities researching novel cancer therapies from pharmaceutical companies to university research laboratories to improve the outcome of the studies.

Phil Grayeski from the Paramis team

MBE students Phil Grayeski, Kayla Miele and Edward Tan, with George Grillo from the Centre of Development Studies won in the Social Enterprise Category with Paramis.

In New York alone, the Greek yogurt industry generates 150 million gallons of acidic whey, a manufacturing byproduct and environmental pollutant, and has costly, inefficient methods for its disposal in this relatively young, fast-growing industry. Manufacturers are searching for alternative methods to process acidic whey for nutritional and water purification uses efficiently.

Paramis will provide a 90% more energy-efficient, cost-effective waste processing filtration system incorporating a novel nanofiltration membrane to generate valuable end products such as recycled, purified water, lean whey protein, and lactose while removing the excess calcium and lactic acid that are the greatest processing hurdles. Our business will generate revenue through both processing fees of acidic whey waste and through the resale of these end products back to food and dairy manufacturers.

The teams will now go on to enter the £5k competition where they must convince judges and investors that the idea can fly by producing a 3500 word business plan.